Enhancing Positive Communication Skills
EDLD 7038 - Leadership for Social Justice
University of Cincinna
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
My lesson was based around improving the relationships in my classroom and supporting the
development of student’s positive communication skills. It is really important for students to
develop these skills as Rutherford et al. (1998) states “socially competent person is capable of
initiating and maintaining positive social interactions, developing friendships, establishing
collaborative networks, and coping effectively with their social environment” (p.354). Not only
will the development of these skills improve the classroom environment it will help the students
to make friends and have better interactions outside of the classroom.
I feel as though my lesson went really well and the students were engaged in the activities. I
know this because the students were actively giving ideas and answers when prompted and
participating fully in both tasks. I think I planned two very engaging activities which involved
me thinking about my students and their needs as well as the time I was taking my lesson. I
knew that my lesson would take place in the afternoon so I needed to ensure the activities I
chose would get the students moving and keep them motivated. The Island Survival activity
was an opportunity for students to practice their communication and reasoning skills. I split the
class in two groups ensuring that there was a mix of friend groups so students could work with
people they would not usually work with. During the activity I moved around the room
implementing a facilitator strategy allowing the students to engage in conversations with each
other about ideas and give them an opportunity to practice the positive communication skills
we had discussed. It was great to step back and observe the students collaborating and coming
to conclusions together. Collaborative learning is definitely something I would implement into
my future teaching practice as I believe students bring their own knowledge and experiences
into the classroom and giving them an opportunity to share and listen to others is a great
learning experience (The Education Hub, n.d.).
During the activity some students implemented their own strategies to help their group work
together for example, one student suggested that you could only talk and share your idea if you
were holding the white board marker as the group agreed it was too hard to hear each other’s
ideas when everyone was talking at the same time. The other group faced a barrier when they
could not decide on the last item to keep, the boys wanted the sleeping bag and the girls were
adamant on keeping the dog. I watched as the students tried to explain their reasons for each
and attempt to compromise. This was where I was unsure of what to do as a teacher, I had given
the students time to try and work it out and agree but they both had strong reasons for their
decisions so I decided to let them share both ideas to the class. I was not sure if that was the
right thing to do at the time but the activity was based around positive communication and
working together and the students to me did a great job at trying to reason with each other and
I did not want push the students into an argument.
The next part of the lesson involved the students going outside, which I knew may involve me
to implement more behavior management strategies as it was the end of the day and the students
were becoming restless. I instructed the students to form two lines outside with the groups they
had been working in already. As the students stood in their lines I explained the next task to the
students and quickly realized that I had to ask to sit down as I could not see everyone in the
line but I could hear a lot of talking which meant there were students that were not listening to
the instructions. Another barrier I faced once the students started the activity was not having
an attention signal to stop students. At one stage both teams were letting each other’s hands go
untie the knot and I wanted to point that out and instruct both teams to start again but I struggled
to gain their attention without raising my voice. I definitely think that I need to implement an
attention signal into my teaching practice as I do not like raising my voice to gain the students
attention. Attention signals are important to classroom management as it “allows the teacher to
transition from an interactive activity into an activity that requires attention to be focused on
the speaker” (The Teacher Toolkit, n.d., para 1). I know that having a signal would have helped
my lesson as the students would have recognized the signaled, stopped what they were doing
and focused on me, this would have given me an opportunity to clearly explain what the
students were not getting right during the task.
Overall, I think the lesson went well and the students were engaged in the learning. Once the
students were back inside, I gave the students an opportunity to reflect on the lesson and point
out parts they enjoyed and things that we could work on together as a class. I pointed out some
of the positive communication strategies I saw some students using to help their groups work
together to try and help students make connections and link our learning intention into the
activities.
References
Rutherford, R., Mathur, S., & Quinn, M. (1998). Promoting Social Communication Skills
Through Cooperative Learning and Direct Instruction. Education and Treatment of Children,
21(3), 354-369.
The Teacher Toolkit. (n.d.). Attention Signal.
http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/attention-signal
The Education Hub. (n.d.). A brief introduction to collaborative learning.
http://www.theeducationhub.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ Collaborative-learning.pdf
